Aberdeenshire Birding

After the Icterine Warbler, I wouldn’t have minded a quiet end to May. A day at the Ythan on 21st May was ridiculously quiet; possibly the quietest I have ever seen the estuary. The highlight that day was a scattering of Red-breasted Merganser, 30 Ringed Plovers and a pair of Stonechat on Forvie Moor. To this effect, I felt a quiet end may be on the cards. Indeed, the Ythan was very quiet once again during a fully day’s birding last Tuesday (28th), but did hold an unseasonal winter plumaged Grey Plover at Waulkmill,presumably a straggler. I had hoped that some passerines may materialise that day, but with just a Garden Warbler at Balmedie and the sun shining, I was doubtful. It was hard graft, with a return visit to Cruden Bay Woods holding the only other migrant of note, in the form of a single Lesser Whitethroat by the gully. It was however, lovely and fulfilling to complete the whole route from Cruden Bay Woods down to the gully, something I had planned to work on the day of the Iccy but did not have time to do. However, as a whole, the top quality action kept on going that month.

male Stonechat on Sands of Forvie (21/5/13) – always lovely to see, given the battering they’ve had in recent years.

It was a perfectly productive day aside from the passerines. Low water levels at Meikle Loch produced no less than 15 Ringed Plovers, whilst Strathbeg held a rather mobile adult Spoonbill. Its always lovely to see patch Spooners, a species which is usually annual on passage in the region and usually ends up at either Strathbeg or the Ythan. It gave distant views from both the Visitor Centre and Tower Pool, a little too distant for reasonable photographic opportunities, but nonetheless much enjoyed despite annoying us by moving in front of the visitor centre as we worked tower pool! Tower Pool also produced a smashing drake Garganey in front of Savoch, associating with a few Shoveler; a lovely bird and always a joy to see.

The highlight of the day, however, came at the lagoon, with a single adult Little Tern causing much excitement as it associated with a few Common and Arctic Terns. Originally flushed from the lagoon itself, it fed offshore for a few minutes before meandering southwards. Put it this way: this was the first Little Tern I had ever seen on patchdespite working the area for over 10 years, whereas I have seen numerous Spoonbill and Garganey on site! This was also quite a noteworthy record away from the Ythan nucleus: the only other place I had seen them in the region away from the Ythan prior to this was Donmouth. Therefore I think I was completely justified in literally exclaiming ‘bloody hell, Little Tern!’ to Dad as I connected. A really superb patch bird, possibly the first seen on site for a few years.

***

Meanwhile, The Ness continued its run of decent birds right until the month’s end. On 24th I headed out to the patch with a mission to find a Long-tailed Skua or two. After 25 over Loch of Skene the previous evening and at least 9 past The Ness during that morning, I was hopeful and made an impetuous decision to head out. Indeed, the sea was rocking with fairly strong north-westerlies when I arrived just before midday, though I was concerned that the sunny conditions may be an ill omen. As it happened, this was a bad sign for LTS after all. In a three hour seawatch, auks, Kittiwakes and Gannets were incessantly spilling northwards in their hundreds. Skua passage was also relatively decent, despite not holding that hoped for Long-tailed Skua: some 31 Arctic Skua (all but 2 were dark morphs) and 23 Bonxies heading northwards. I soon realised though that despite these numbers, passage of the commoner skuas needed to be more prolific for an LTS to pass. To ease the lack of LTS, 6 Manx Shearwaters (two groups of 3 N) and 4 Common Scoters provided a little consolation.

It seemed that I had arrived too late to witness the sort of LTS passage that had taken place earlier in the morning. It was a tad annoying, given that just 20 minutes prior to my arrival there had been a report of a single LTS north, but nonetheless the decent seabird passage that day was perfectly entertaining. As always, I remained eternally optimistic that The Ness would still strike back with something else before the month’s end. And it did, redeemed itself instantly when Mark found this stunner by the North Bank on 27th May:

male Red-backed Shrike, Girdle Ness (27/5/13). A patch first for me.

This was a must see bird on patch, one of those patch birds that is a dream to connect with regardless of rarity status. After a superb run of Red-backed Shrike recently, it was only a matter of time before The Ness would score one. Mark had described the bird as ‘easily disturbed’, and indeed, it took a good while to find this beauty. After 10 minutes or so I flushed the stonking male Red-backed Shrike from deep in cover, when it proceeded to land in the westernmost sycamore. For those few seconds I enjoyed great views of it face on, similarly with the Bluethroat causing me to say ‘corrr!’ to myself aloud. It really was a beauty, but quite unlike a good deal of Red-backed Shrikes , it proved to be extremely skittish and also elusive when in cover. Mark soon arrived, and we spent a rather frustrating hour or so trying to track this RBS as it moved hither and thither along the North Bank. It tended to move quite considerable distances, mostly between the main sycamore and the smaller sycamore that I had flushed it from initially. One one occasion it managed to settle for a few minutes in the open, allowing for pure and unadulterated enjoyment. Very few spring birding experiences are comparable in quality to watching a male Red-backed Shrike, and for those few minutes I indulged it in fully, a fantastic patch bird and the first on site for a good several years. Eventually however, we realised that we were flogging a dead horse in trying to get consistent views, so we headed round the rest of The Ness, which proved to be quiet.

Last Friday (31st), I was in the area again, when I hammered the coastal scrub between Cove and The Ness itself, covering several different areas. The cliff path from Cove to the patch is a few miles long, and with a band of thick fog moving in as I arrived I became excited. This was followed a couple of hours later by a band of rain. I was hopeful for a mini passerine arrival, but despite working all the possible cover between Cove and The Ness, there were no passerines migs to speak of. Seabirds, however, made up for this, with a single pale-phase Arctic Skua northover my head and the throngs of auks, Kittiwakes and Fulmars on the saw-toothed cliff edges giving an authentic, riveting taste and experience of a thriving seabird city. The accolades, however, go to a splendid summer plumaged Black Guillemot sitting close offshore, the first I have seen outside of passage in Aberdeenshire to my knowledge of this localised and regionally tricky breeder; a superb way to round off the month and a bird that was much reveled in as I had my lunch. The Ness itself was quiet again, aside from 8 House Martins over the North Bank.

Black Guillemot, undisclosed site (31/5/13) ; the first presumed breeding bird I have seen in the region.

Fulmar, Cove Bay (31/5/13)

seabird city at Cove Bay (31/5/13)

***

I think it is fair to say that Aberdeenshire has provided a fantastic farewell, given the productivity of last month’s birding. This is my final month in Aberdeenshire, before I move further south to establish my main base in Edinburgh, as well as a base in Glasgow. I will be in the region until the 22nd; that point may well represent the end of my birding in this superb region. For now though, I am focusing on enjoying what finite birding time I have left here, which will include a visit to Deeside, hopefully a couple more forays to The Ness and final visits to other places on the north coast; so expect some material on that in the next few weeks.

Cruden Bay, some 7 or 8 miles north of the Ythan, was somewhere I hadn’t birded that much prior to this month. The area has always been well known for its ability to attract migrants, but as far as I am aware has not had half the same coverage as it used to back in the early 2000s. I certainly hadn’t birded there for a good few years until news of an Eastern Subalpine Warbler came through of one at said location, up in the obscurely located Cruden Bay Brickworks rather than in the more typical location of Cruden Bay Woods.

I was enjoying a few beers at the time the news went out, and had seen good numbers of these birds in Spain, so I was perhaps overly relaxed about seeing this bird. I made other plans until Thursday 16th May, when some very fine weather prompted me to take the bus up there with the aim of getting some photos. I hadn’t quite anticipated how easy it was to access the area from the bus-stop, as a kind local dog-walker directed me to some gorseland and gravel pits where they said they had seen ‘photographers’ the day before. They left me to it, and I stuck around a small pool fringed by gorse where there seemed to be a good concentration of Willow and Sedge Warblers. The activity here suggested that it was worth scouring this particular area for the Subalp, though after 10 minutes I had not had any luck, so started to head towards a larger area of gorse to the west.

As I began to meander in that direction, I heard a deep tack call emanating from the gorse I had just worked by the pool. Having heard the western subspecies call in Spain, I knew this was the Eastern Subalpine Warbler. No sooner had it called did I glimpse it dipping from one end of the gorse to the other, noting intensely slate grey upperparts with a blueish hue before it disappeared. I anticipated that it would present itself out in the open at this point, but it remained recalcitrant for a good while. Eventually, it worked its way up the gorse until it was fully out in the open and from then on, it remained more or less constantly on show. After some brief hassle from a Willow Warbler, it settled on a conspicuous piece of dead gorse more or less right by the pool, where for some ridiculous reason it sat contentedly for over 15 minutes!

What ensued was 15 minutes sitting down on the grass, with a Subalpine Warbler perched in the open the fantastic spring sun and cloudless skies, without binoculars. The only qualm I had was that it was sat with the sun shining strongly on it, leaving many of my shots slightly over-exposed. Given that it stayed perched in that one place though, I was able to manoeuvre my angle in relation to the bird so that the sun wasn’t on it so much. Overall though, it couldn’t have been more ideal. After such great views, I could see why the subspecies of this individual had recently been re-evaluated from cantillans to albistriata: the bird showed a rather prominent and lengthy submoustachial stripe in comparison to the cantillans I had seen in Spain, and unlike the latter showed a strong demarcation between the rufous throat/upper-breast and rather off white flanks; many of the Western Subalpines in Spain had shown more uniformly rufuous underparts extending beyond the flanks. It was therefore educational to have seen both subspecies within a short period of time. A superb bird: I really couldn’t have asked for much more views wise.

Eastern Subalpine Warbler, Cruden Bay Brickworks (16/5/13)

sat out on the dead gorse

at its closest

as in Pic 1, showing demarcation between deep rufuous throat and white flanks and rest of underparts

the Eastern Subalpine Warbler was sitting low down at the back of the pool here (16/5/13)

A few days later, and the pleasant light north easterlies strengthened, bringing with them a whole load of rain. After non-stop heavy rain on Saturday, it seemed inevitable that an arrival of scarce and commoner migrants was on the cards locally the next day. So on Sunday 19th I headed out with hopes of perhaps bumping into expected scarce such as Red-backed Shrike or Marsh Warbler. There was no evidence of an arrival early on at Donmouth, and more to my surprise no migrants as such along the Whinnyfold road from Collieston to the gully at Whinnyfold itself. I was starting to believe that there hadn’t been an arrival whatsoever, but news of a Bluethroat at Forvie as I headed towards Cruden Bay revitalized my hopes. I fancied Cruden Bay Woods for something, given it and its gully’s reputation for migrants, but I knew it would be hard to work.

Nonetheless, we gave it a go at midday. Entering at the woods western edge, we headed in the direction of the gully. It was a scene of serene beauty; a woodland alive with bird song and the cacophony of a rookery in the treetops, yet otherwise still, peaceful and shrouded in mist. About 400m from where we entered, there seemed to be a lot of warbler activity in the cover by the burn. I quickly got onto a smart Lesser Whitethroat and shortly afterwards a Garden Warbler, suggesting there had been a small arrival. Then this started singing…

Icterine Warbler! The videos above were recorded when the bird was deep in cover and did not come out for about an hour and a half… typical! After hearing it for the first time, I strongly suspected that it was an Iccy, but needed some views just for confirmation. Luckily, the bird in question belted out a bush and landed on a log right by the burn, where it presented itself for about 45 seconds. What a gorgeous wee thing, with a smashing contrast between green-grey uppers and lemon unders, pale lores, a deep set, long bill, peaked rear crown feathers and a reasonably well defined white wing panel formed around the secondaries and tertials all very evident. Glued to the bird, I instantaneously called across to Dad to come over, who was working habitat further down the burn, but he was too late, despite his efforts to get there in time to see it perched in the open. This brief spell of extreme showiness was unusual for an Iccy, though for all but those 45 seconds it sat low in cover like an Iccy should do, singing but not showing.

What ensued was a few fleeting views of its rear end as it kept extremely low and skulky, tantilizing us with its song. The song was rich, a mixture of diagnostic, fast paced nasal notes and mimicry (including Whitethroat, Blue Tit, Swallow and even Oystercatcher at points), and predominantly staccato flutey notes in sets of three or four per bout of song. I couldn’t quite believe after an hour and a half that we had no luck in trying to obtain further views. It was frustrating for Dad, who only managed fleeting views and not the decent view I had had at first. I was happy to settle with my initial good views, so eventually let it be. This Icterine Warbler was part of a small pocket of 7 other warbler species sharing that same area of stream: including arrivals of 2 Lesser Whitethroats and the aforementioned Garden Warbler, and residents in the form of Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Whitethroat and also Sedge nearby. Warbler mania it was for that spell. I was keen to work down towards the gully, but with an exam the next day, I had to give up at that point and was at home revising by 2:30pm.

Cruden Bay Woods; taken on the day of the Subalpine Warbler

***

It’s fair to say that Cruden Bay has had its day this May, particularly for warblers! Those two experiences have certainly given a buzz to the area. If I was sticking around in Aberdeenshire, I’d start visiting a lot more, but unfortunately that is not to be! It is has definitely gone out on a high though and reminded me of how superb it can be when conditions allow.

It’s now nearing a month since I returned from an amazing trip with my fellow Scouting For Birds lads to Southern Spain, and as you can probably tell, no progression has been made blog wise since then… until now! Exams and excess birding have played a role in preventing me from updating this, but I still promise that when my exams end, I will use the oodles of free time that I have to get this updated. The Spanish trip report will hopefully appear at some point in July. Putting it lightly, there is a lot to cover there!

Aberdeenshire birding has been on a bit of a hot streak of late. It has been of those springs that seems to be producing consistent amounts of local scarce (the first in a few years admittedly) . This has mostly concerned passerines in the last couple of weeks, owing to some tasty fronts and fairly regular north-easterly winds. This was particularly towards the end of last week and into the weekend, which produced good numbers of Red-backed Shrike and a few other typical scarce spring passerines. That period will be accounted for in a separate post, shortly following this one.

I arrived back in Aberdeen on 1st May, and with study leave and the end of school (permanently!) just two days later, I found myself out in the field again on 6th. Durham and Northumberland based young birders Michael Murphy, Kieran Lawrence and Jack Bucknall (2CY Birders) were stopping off in the region on the way back from their trip to Speyside, so I planned to meet them at the Ythan for a wee goose at ‘Elvis’ – the one and only King Eider. Luckily, the old timer (he must be getting on now) had opted to spend the day on the estuary, rather than to meander down to Murcar or Blackdog. He was a little distant at first, on the far bank opposite the golf hut, rather than rock n’rolling opposite the lifeboat station. He wasn’t strutting his stuff at this point either (he does love to woo the local lasses), so the lads and I had to make do with fairly distant views of him roosting. With limited time on their hands, I briefly showed the others Meikle Loch in an attempt to ‘get’ them a couple of flava, but our efforts were unfortunately in vain.

The lads had to dash southwards, so I was dropped back off at the estuary mouth, where I enjoyed fantastic views of the King on the receding tide throughout the afternoon, strutting his stuff and all. This is the final spring that I will be able to enjoy his company, as I move down to Edinburgh in the autumn. Many an enjoyable day’s birding on the Ythan has been spent with him; he will be sorely missed. I worked the rest of the estuary as far up as Waterside Bridge. It was quite lively, holding at least 10 Little Terns at the ternery with the other three Sterna species,and some passage waders in the form of 60 Dunlin, 30 Sanderling, 3 Knot and up to 15 Whimbrel. This made for some perfectly enjoyable birding, but with revision to be done later that day I had to take the bus home mid afternoon.

King Eider, Ythan Estuary (6/5/13)

Elvis in fine fettle

The repression of revision sunk in during the ensuing week, as I found myself confined to the house and unable to sign up for the boat trip off Portsoy for White-billed Diver; of which there has been an incredible 15+ over the spring. A few other recent complications has meant I have not been able to make it up that way in the last couple of weeks, nor as far as Strathbeg, but birding has been superb enough closer to home. On 10th May revision was rudely interrupted by reports of a Red-spotted Bluethroat at The Ness, in the scrub at the back of the allotments. Within minutes I had coaxed Dad to go for the bird; it would have been rude to have missed such a stunning bird as this on the patch.

Within 20 minutes of the news being put out we were on site. Mark Sullivan, who I had coincidentally met in Spain, had already worked the scrub where it had been reported, but to no avail. At this point it was just the three of us on site, but others quickly appeared. 10 minutes later there was still no sign, but just as folks started to suspect it may have moved elsewhere on site Dad heard the bird uttering a silvery sub song from deep in the scrub. Excitement ensued as eyes scoured the scrub, and the call quickly went up as the Red-spotted Bluethroat presented its gorgeous self on a piece of dung. Bluethroat’s are one of those birds that cause you to say ‘ooh you beauty’ uncontrollably when you first clap eyes on them. This is exactly what happened as I connected. A full adult, it proceeded to show off in front of the admiring group, standing upright, in between making erratic sprints across the shit. What an exquisite bird: its breast a gorgeous assortment of aqua blue, complemented with a flame coloured throat and a lovely creamy super contrasting with jet black lores. With views down to 25ft, it was hard not to get lost in the wonders of this bird.

Soon, the group that had amassed became just a few again. I joined Mark Lewis on a detour to the Battery to see if anything else had come in. It became clear that there had been no fall, so Dad and I returned to the Bluethroat, finding ourselves to be alone with the bird in the newly emerged sunshine. What ensued was some absolutely stonking views of this sibe stunner, down to 12ft on the dung heap again, allowing for some prime photo opportunities. We reveled in these views for some 25 minutes, before the reality of revision hit home and I was whisked back to the house. However, in the company of this Bluethroat, I had blissfully forgotten that I had an exam in just 4 days time. This was my second Bluethroat at The Ness, the first being another svecica in 2001, hopping on the grass at the Battery coincidentally also on 10th May! That was so long ago, however, so watching this individual 12 years to the day later was like seeing one for the first time.

Red-spotted Bluethroat, Girdle Ness, Aberdeen (10/5/13)

at home in its surroundings

Last Wednesday (15th May), I did a full round of The Ness. Low cloud and occasional spitting rain with light north-easterlies felt promising, but as with the first visit there was no obvious arrival. Birds were sparse, with highlights of 2 Whimbrel giving good views at Nigg Bay, a drake Goosander by Skate’s Nose, a newly in Sedge Warbler, two Sand Martin in with some migging Swallows and a cracking male leucorhoa Wheatear at the walled garden. That however, was that.

Two Whimbrel at Nigg Bay, Girdle Ness (15/5/13)

Not that I could complain. The Ness had provided some goodness that week, some greatness in fact… proving that, although its often quiet or dead, it can be great!

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Background: Firth of Forth and Arthur's Seat from Longniddry at Gosford Bay, Lothian, taken on " "

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Welcome to the Blog

I'm Joseph Nichols, an avid 19 year old Scottish birder and patcher that formerly lived in Aberdeen but now has bases in Edinburgh and Glasgow. I also bird in Norfolk as I have family stationed down there, where my local patch is Costessey House Private Estate. This is an area of private land around the cottage I stay in between Costessey and Drayton on the outskirts of Norwich.

I enjoy creative writing and thus many of my blog posts are lengthy. This more extensive medium is uncommon in the birding blog sphere, so I write in such a way with the hope that it will paint a vivid sense of my natural experiences as a whole, rather than just of the birds I have seen.